1. Field of the Invention
The present generally relates to the field of telecommunications, particularly to wireless communications, for example to digital mobile telephony networks (e.g. GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, CDMAONE or CDMA2000 networks) and other wireless communication networks like those complying with the IEEE 802.11 standard (WiFi networks or WLANs) and 802.16 ones (eg Wimax, 802.16e or Wibro) or the ones dedicated to broadcasting operation such as DVB-T, DVB-S and DVB-H.
2. Description of Related Art
Enhancing the capabilities of telecommunication systems, in terms of amount of information that can be exchanged, is an everlasting aim.
Modern telecommunication networks, such as for example digital mobile, cellular telephony networks like GSM (Global System for Mobile communications), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), EDGE (Enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution) and, ultimately, UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) networks, and wireless packet data networks like WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) networks, are intended to support broadband communications, e.g. for enabling video calls, Internet surfing, and the like.
In the years, the demand for increased communication capabilities has been satisfied by setting up new standards, and deploying new networks complying therewith. For example, after the introduction of second-generation (2G) cellular networks, like those complying with the GSM standard, the GPRS and then the EDGE standards have been set up, so as to add packet-switched communication capabilities to the original, circuit-switched 2G network. As a further step, the introduction of third-generation (3G) cellular networks, like those complying with the UMTS, was intended to further increase the wireless communication capabilities.
However, developing a new standard and deploying new networks complying therewith involves high investments. Moreover, the impact of new network standards on the already deployed networks has to be carefully evaluated, especially when the current and the new communication systems have to share the same frequency band: interference problems due to the coexistence of the two systems might as a matter of fact worsen the communications performance.
These efforts, fully justified when the goal is a substantial increase in performance, may in some cases not be completely justified, particularly when a small increase in the communication capabilities would be sufficient.
Thus, efficiently using the licensed or allowed bandwidth of an already existing and deployed communication network is of primary importance for achieving better communication capabilities.